By Alex Davidson
Fishermen perched along the Joe Addabbo Bridge in Howard Beach do not know whether to blame the building of a new bridge across Jamaica Bay, unseasonably cold weather, the relentless rain that fell on Queens in June or just plain old bad luck for this season’s poor catch.
Hundreds of attempts by fishermen young and old last Thursday to catch striped bass, flounder and fluke ended with little fanfare as the only catch by mid-afternoon were a few crab. The day, however, seemed to reflect a disturbing trend that fishers say has been plaguing borough fisherfolk for the past few years.
“There is no gold mine here anymore,” said Frank Guzman, 57, of Woodhaven. “This area used to be pretty good before they put in the new bridge.”
Guzman said that before the construction of the relatively new Joe Addabbo Bridge in Jamaica Bay 10 years ago, fish were plentiful. He said the past decade, however, has seen a decrease in the number of fish caught by the borough’s rod-and-reel set.
The Woodhaven resident, who has been coming to Howard Beach to fish for almost 25 years, said this season has been noticeably slow. Guzman said he now frequents Montauk and other coastal areas away from Queens to go fishing.
“Maybe they (the city) should come here and dump some fish in,” he said jokingly.
Ross Reinhardt, who was fishing along the bridge with his friends and children, agreed with Guzman that the catches this year have been remarkably low. He blamed the low summer water temperatures and June rains for the decrease in fish catches.
“I haven’t seen one person take one fish out of the waters today,” said Reinhardt, a Jackson Heights resident. “This has been a very slow year.”
The only prey people seemed to be hooking on the overcast, gray summer day in July were crabs, which to the annoyance of the fisherman, eat the bait off fishing lines but then often avoid capture.
Reinhardt said he sometimes goes out on party boats in Brooklyn and has had the same bad luck in not catching any fish.
“The hotter the water, the better off you are,” he said. “But when it is cold like this, the fish do not feel like eating.”
But Dr. Martin Schreibman, founder of the Aquatic Research and Environmental Assessment Center at Brooklyn College who has studied marine life near and around Jamaica Bay, said there is no evidence of a dwindling fish population.
“There is no indication that there has been any drop in the number of fish,” Schreibman said. “There are actually some new species coming into the bay.”
Schreibman countered the fishermen’s claims and instead said there has been an improvement in the number of fish populating the waters in and around Jamaica Bay.
Jamaica Bay Guardian Don Riepe, who is overseeing a two-year pilot program aimed at coordinating research to preserve salt marshes in the Bay, also dismissed the claim that fewer fish now live off the waters of Howard Beach.
“Maybe they (fishermen) should try using some new bait,” he said.
But for the people last Thursday with the rods and bait, it was a different story in Howard Beach.
The pedestrian walkways on both sides of the Joe Addabbo Bridge linking Howard Beach to Broad Channel were littered with crab shells, seaweed and peanut shells, with no sight of striped bass or flounder scales, bones, blood or guts.
The fishermen were pessimistic about prospects for any increase in the number of fish caught, which means fewer people could be coming to Queens to do their fishing.
Carlos Santiago, who arrived early on the bridge last Thursday morning to improve his chances of making a catch, said he has cut down on the frequency of his trips to Howard Beach because of the decline this past decade in overall catches. He had no fish to show off after more than six hours of trying but had netted three crabs.
“It is just too slow here,” said the Brooklyn resident. “Things used to be better.”
Reach reporter Alex Davidson by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156
